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Brandon Ray Kirk

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Brandon Ray Kirk

Category Archives: Stiltner

Map: Southwestern West Virginia (1918-1919)

08 Thursday Dec 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Atenville, Banco, Beech Creek, Big Creek, Big Harts Creek, Big Sandy Valley, Big Ugly Creek, Boone County, Breeden, Chapmanville, Clothier, Cove Gap, Crawley Creek, Dingess, Dunlow, East Lynn, Enslow, Ferrellsburg, Fourteen, Gilbert, Gill, Green Shoal, Guyandotte River, Halcyon, Hamlin, Harts, Holden, Kermit, Kiahsville, Kitchen, Leet, Little Harts Creek, Logan, Man, Matewan, Meador, Midkiff, Pecks Mill, Peter Creek, Queens Ridge, Ranger, Rector, Sand Creek, Spurlockville, Stiltner, Stone Branch, Toney, Twelve Pole Creek, Wayne, West Hamlin, Wewanta, Wharncliffe, Whirlwind, Williamson, Wyoming County, Yantus

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Appalachia, Big Sandy River, Boone County, Guyandotte River, Hamlin, history, Lincoln County, Logan, Logan County, Madison, map, maps, McDowell County, Mingo County, Pineville, Polk's State Gazetteer and Business Directory, Tug Fork, Twelve Pole Creek, Wayne, Wayne County, Welch, West Virginia, Williamson, Wyoming County

West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1918-1919, published by R.L. Polk and Company.

Mariah (Vance) Adkins Obituary (1931)

06 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Cemeteries, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner, Women's History

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Abner Vance, Angeline Adams, Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, Cain Adkins, Cain Adkins Jr., cemeteries, Community Memorial Gardens, Eliza Kelly, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Jesse Nelson, Kenova, Lena Napier, Lick Creek, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Mariah Adkins, Mary Jane Jordan, Mittie Adkins, photos, Spicie Fry, Stiltner, Tams, Thomas Vaughan, Walton, Wayne, Wayne County, Wayne County News, West Fork, West Virginia, Williamson, Winchester Adkins

Mariah Adkins Obituary WCN 07.02.1931 1.JPG

Wayne County (WV) News, 2 July 1931. Mariah (Vance) Adkins was born on the West Fork of Harts Creek in present-day Lincoln County, WV. She married Canaan “Cain” Adkins, a preacher, teacher, doctor, and justice of the peace.

IMG_6738

Mariah Adkins grave at Community Memorial Gardens near Wayne, Wayne County, WV. 23 July 2016.

Cain Adkins military record (1861)

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Adkins Mill, Civil War, East Lynn, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner

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129th Regiment Virginia Militia, Adkins Mill, Blood in West Virginia, Cain Adkins, Carter's Company, civil war, Confederate Army, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Logan, U.S. South, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

Cain Adkins military record 1

Cain Adkins military record, 129th Virginia Militia, Carter’s Company, 1861. Cain Adkins, a resident of Adkins Mill in Wayne County, WV, later lived on Harts Creek in Lincoln County

Cain Adkins military record 2

Cain Adkins military record, 129th Virginia Militia, Carter’s Company, 1861. Cain Adkins, a resident of Adkins Mill in Wayne County, WV, later lived on Harts Creek in Lincoln County

Cain Adkins military record, 129th Virginia Militia, Carter’s Company, 1861. Cain Adkins, a resident of Adkins Mill in Wayne County, WV, later lived on Harts Creek in Lincoln County

Cain Adkins military record, 129th Virginia Militia, Carter’s Company, 1861. Cain Adkins, a resident of Adkins Mill in Wayne County, WV, later lived on Harts Creek in Lincoln County

Cain Adkins military record 4

Cain Adkins military record, 129th Virginia Militia, Carter’s Company, 1861. Cain Adkins, a resident of Adkins Mill in Wayne County, WV, later lived on Harts Creek in Lincoln County

The Adkins Family

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in East Lynn, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Stiltner

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Appalachia, banjo, Blood in West Virginia, Cain Adkins, culture, East Lynn, Gospel, guitar, Harts Creek, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, music, Spicie Frye, Stiltner, The Adkins Family, U.S. South, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

The Adkins Family, operating out of Wayne County, West Virginia, is one of the Tri-State’s most talented, well-known, and enduring Gospel groups. You can read more about their musical history here: http://theadkinsfamily.waynewv.com/ I’m proud to say their ancestors once lived on the West Fork of Harts Creek in Lincoln County. I met many of them while researching my book, “Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy,” which details some of their family’s rich history. I encourage you to follow their Facebook page. If you enjoy Gospel music, you will not be disappointed. This is one amazing group of musicians. https://www.facebook.com/TheAdkinsFamilyGroup

The McCoy Time Singers

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in East Lynn, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Stiltner

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Appalachia, Charles Bernard McCoy, culture, East Lynn, genealogy, Gladys Richardson Adkins, guitar, history, Lincoln County Feud, music, photos, Raymond McCoy, Sherman McCoy, Spicy Fry, Stiltner, The McCoy Time Singers, Wayne County, West Virginia

The McCoy Time Singers (l-r) of Wayne County, WV: Spicy Fry, Charles Bernard McCoy, Raymond McCoy, and Sherman McCoy

The McCoy Time Singers (l-r) of Wayne County, WV: Spicy Fry, Charles Bernard McCoy, Raymond McCoy, and Sherman McCoy

Post Offices of Wayne County, WV

28 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Adkins Mill, Cove Gap, East Lynn, Kiahsville, Queens Ridge, Stiltner

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Adkins Mills Post Office, Albert Watts, Alexander Collins, Appalachia, Attison Adkins, Chapman Adkins, Chapman Fry, Charles W. Tabor, Checker S. Queen, civil war, Cove Creek Post Office, Cove Gap Post Office, East Lynn, Frank M. Dickson, G.F. Collins, genealogy, George W. Wiley, history, History of East Lynn Community, Jackson Adkins, James Fry, Jesse Fry, John H. Napier, John H. Queen, John McCoy, Joseph Workman, Joshua Queen, Kiahsville Post Office, Leander J. Adkins, Lindsey Frasher, Louis C. Queen, Lucian Osborn, Lucian Wiley, Malinda M. Enochs, miller, Nathaniel Turner, Noah Peters, Queens Ridge Post Office, Rayburn Adkins, Raymond Maynard, Robert Napier, Rufus Pack, Samuel Dyer, Sherman Maynard, Stiltner Post Office, Thomas Jackson, Thomas P. Maynard, Twelve Pole Creek, Walter G. Sparks, Walter Queen, Wayne, Wayne County, West Virginia, William D. Frasher, William D. Vaughan, William P. Mankin, Willie Jones, Winfield S. Enochs

The following post offices in Wayne County, West Virginia, represent some of my favorite locations: Adkin’s Mills (1869-1891), Cove Creek (1869-1912), Cove Gap (1877-?), Kiahsville (1884-?), Queen’s Ridge (1884-?), and Stiltner (1906-?). This list will be updated as time permits.

Adkin’s Mills Post Office (1869-1891)

Chapman Adkins: 19 August 1869 – 19 February 1873

Noah Peters: 19 February 1873 – 11 August 1874

Joseph Workman: 11 August 1874 – 14 March 1876

Nathaniel Turner: 14 March 1876 – 5 July 1876

John H. Napier: 5 July 1876 – 8 October 1877

Albert Watts: 8 October 1877 – 23 April 1879

Chapman Fry: 23 April 1879 – 8 January 1880

William Vaughan: 8 January 1880 – 20 September 1888

Charles W. Tabor: 20 September 1888 – 15 August 1889

Thomas Jackson: 15 August 1889 – 14 January 1891

Changed to East Lynn: 14 January 1891

Cove Creek Post Office (1869-1912)

Walter Queen: 17 May 1869 – 11 August 1870

John H. Queen: 11 August 1870 – 31 July 1871

Post office discontinued: 31 July 1871

Jackson Adkins: 8 April 1873 – 25 November 1874

Jesse Fry: 25 November 1874 – 31 May 1881

Walter Queen: 31 May 1881 – 16 August 1889

Walter Frasher: 16 August 1889 – 27 August 1909

Lindsey Frasher: 27 August 1909 – 15 July 1912

Post office discontinued: 15 July 1912, mail to East Lynn

Cove Gap Post Office (1877-?)

John McCoy: 10 January 1877 – 9 October 1877

Alexander Collins: 9 October 1877 – 23 October 1878

George W. Wiley: 23 October 1878 – 31 August 1885

Charles W. Tabor: 31 August 1885 – 20 January 1886

Frank M. Dickson: 20 January 1886 – 16 August 1887

William P. Mankin: 16 August 1887 – 12 October 1889

Rufus Pack: 12 October 1889 – 11 November 1889

G.F. Collins: 11 November 1889 – 8 March 1890

Mrs. Malinda M. Enochs: 8 March 1890 – 17 April 1896

Winfield S. Enochs: 17 April 1896 – 28 July 1898

Walter G. Sparks: 28 July 1898 – 6 November 1900

Rayburn Adkins: 6 November 1900 – 30 January 1901

Leander J. Adkins: 30 January 1901 – 31 January 1903

George W. Wiley: 31 January 1903 – 8 August 1912

Rayburn Adkins: 6 June 1914 – 6 January 1921

Samuel Dyer: 6 January 1921 – ?

Kiahsville Post Office (1884-present)

Joshua Queen: 16 June 1884 – 19 July 1895

Thomas P. Maynard: 19 July 1895 – 1 December 1921

Raymond Maynard: 1 December 1921 – ?

Queen’s Ridge Office (1884-?)

Louis C. Queen: 16 June 1884 – 5 May 1914

Checker S. Queen: 5 May 1914 – 13 September 1917

Willie Jones: 13 September 1917 – ?

Stiltner Post Office (1906-?)

Sherman Maynard: 12 November 1906 – 31 May 1907

William D. Frasher: 31 May 1907 – 18 June 1914

Frank H. Fry: 18 June 1914 – 7 December 1918

William D. Frasher: 19 April 1929 – ?

Source: U.S. Appointments of Postmasters, 1832-1971, maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Additional notes provided by Lucian W. Osborn in his “History of East Lynn Community” (1927): “There was no post office in this section until after the Civil War and the people here and for many miles above here had to go to Wayne Court House for their mail. But in 1868 Adkins Mill postoffice was established at the water mill then owned by Attison Adkins, one and one-half miles from our present community center. Chapman Adkins was the first postmaster. I am told that the amount of mail then received was so small that no mail bags were required to carry it in, and the mail only went once a week. After a few years the office was moved to the community center, and after going through various hands W. D. Vaughan was appointed postmaster in 1876. He moved the office down to where “Uncle Robert” Napier lived, a short distance from where the railroad depot now stands. Later Mr. Vaughan moved the office to where he now resides and kept it till about 1888 when C. W. Tabor was appointed postmaster. The office was then moved back to the community center and placed in H. Watts’ store. Soon after this the name was changed from Adkins Mill to East Lynn. Mr. Vaughn informs me that when he took charge of the office the pay for one month was only about five dollars and that not as much mail was received at the office in two months as is now received in one day.”

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy

25 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Harts, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner, Women's History

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Blood in West Virginia, Cain Adkins, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Mariah Adkins, photos, Spicie McCoy, West Fork, West Virginia

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, wife of Green McCoy, resident of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, wife of Green McCoy, resident of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Sherman Boyd McCoy

21 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Stiltner

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genealogy, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, history, life, Lincoln County, music, photos, Sherman McCoy, Spicie McCoy, Stiltner, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

Sherman Boyd McCoy (1888-1943), son of Green and Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, resident of Wayne County, WV

Sherman Boyd McCoy (1888-1943), son of Green and Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, resident of Wayne County, WV

Cain and Mariah (Vance) Adkins

11 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Harts, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner

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Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, Cain Adkins, education, Harts Creek, history, justice of the peace, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Mariah Adkins, medicine, photos, preacher, Stiltner, U.S. South, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

Cain and Mariah (Vance) Adkins, residents of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Cain and Mariah (Vance) Adkins, residents of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV. Cain was a United Baptist preacher, teacher, country doctor, justice of the peace…and participant in the Lincoln County Feud.

Monroe Fry

03 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Stiltner

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history, Monroe Fry, photos, Spicie McCoy, Stiltner, Wayne County, West Virginia

Monroe T. Fry, son of Spicie (Adkins) McCoy-Fry, resident of Stiltner, Wayne County, WV

Monroe T. Fry (left), son of Spicie (Adkins) McCoy-Fry, resident of Stiltner, Wayne County, WV

Salena “Lena” (Adkins) Napier

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner, Women's History

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Appalachia, Cain Adkins, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Lena Adkins, life, Lincoln County, Mariah Adkins, photos, Stiltner, U.S. South, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

Salena "Lena" Adkins Napier (1876-1939), daughter of Cain and Mariah (Vance) Adkins, resident of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Salena “Lena” Adkins Napier (1876-1939), daughter of Cain and Mariah (Vance) Adkins, resident of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Adkins-McCoy family of Stiltner, WV

15 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner

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Alonzo Adkins, Cain Adkins Jr., Canaan Jordan, genealogy, Green McCoy Jr., Harkins Fry, history, Leander Frazier, Monroe Fry, Sherman McCoy, Stiltner, Wayne County, West Virginia, Winchester Adkins

(L-R): Harkins Fry, Cain Adkins Jr., Canaan D. Jordan, Green McCoy Jr., Leander Frazier, Winchester Adkins, Sherman McCoy, Monroe Fry, and Alonzo "Lon" Adkins.

(L-R): Harkins Fry, Cain Adkins Jr., Canaan D. Jordan, Green McCoy Jr., Leander Frazier, Winchester Adkins, Sherman McCoy, Monroe Fry, and Alonzo “Lon” Adkins.

In Search of Ed Haley 304

13 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, Stiltner

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Angeline Lucas, Brandon Kirk, Cain Adkins, Daisy Ross, East Lynn, Faye Smith, genealogy, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, history, John Hartford, Kenova, Lee Adams, Lincoln County, Lynza John McCoy, Mary McCoy, Spicie McCoy, Stiltner, Twelve Pole Creek, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia, writing

Things got kind of quiet after that. I asked Faye if we were wearing her mother out and she said, “No, I don’t think so. She sits there and… Of course, she makes quilts. She’s made twenty since the first of the year. We’ve got them stacked upstairs. She made sixty-four the year before last. Last year she only made fifty-four. I don’t know how many she’ll make this year. She makes them upstairs. She pulls herself up there — you know, a handrail.”

Brandon asked if Daisy sold her quilts and Faye said, “Yeah, she sells them. Well, she gives us kids all one every year for our birthday. I’ve probably got forty or fifty.”

I asked how much they sold for and Faye said, “Thirty dollars.”

I said, “Have you got one you’d sell me?” and Faye laughed and said, “I’ve got a dozen if you want them. As a matter of fact, she’s even got her name and the date she completed it on each quilt.”

Faye looked over at her mother and said loudly, “He wants to buy one of your quilts.”

Daisy said, “Well, they’re upstairs.”

Brandon, Faye, and I went upstairs and fished through a bunch of quilts in a bedroom. We bought several; they were great souvenirs.

Back downstairs, Daisy told us more about Green McCoy’s “other family” in Eden, Kentucky.

“He had two children by his first wife,” she said. “Mary come and seen us and we was all tickled about it. I don’t know how she found us. She’d come to Kenova and stayed with some woman and found out where we lived up there above East Lynn in Stiltner way up in the country in a hollow. And she stayed a week or two. I don’t know how long she was aiming to stay, but she’d stayed with some lady and cleaned house and she cleaned out her wardrobe and took it with her and the law came and got ‘er. We don’t know what ever happened to Mary — we never heard from her no more. She was from down in Kentucky somewhere. I was just a little girl when she come up there.”

As for Green’s other child: “They had another’n, but I don’t know whether it was a girl or a boy.”

Not long before we left, Daisy revealed a final interesting connection between Green McCoy’s family and Cain Adkins’ family. She said Green McCoy had a brother named John who came around Cain’s place on Harts Creek.

“He’d go up there when Mom and Green lived out there in one of Grandpaw’s shacks. I think he was younger than Green.”

He might have been the same John McCoy, Brandon said, who land records showed owning 526 acres on Twelve Pole in Lincoln County in 1883.

About two years after Green’s death, John had a fling with Spicie’s sister, Angeline Lucas (Boney’s widow).

“Aunt Angeline went and had a young’n by him,” Daisy said.

A little later, she married Lee Adams and had seven more children, bringing her total to fourteen.

Sherman McCoy

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Stiltner

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Appalachia, genealogy, Green McCoy, history, photos, Sherman McCoy, Spicie McCoy, U.S. South

Sherman McCoy, son of Green and Spicie (Adkins) McCoy

Sherman McCoy, son of Green and Spicie (Adkins) McCoy

In Search of Ed Haley 303

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Stiltner

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banjo, Brights Disease, Cain Adkins, Cain Adkins Jr., Catlettsburg, Chillicothe, Columbus, crime, Daisy Ross, Ed Haley, Faye Smith, fiddlers, fiddling, genealogy, Goble Fry, Green McCoy, Green McCoy Jr., guitar, Harkins Fry, history, Indian Girl, Kenova, Kentucky, Laurel Creek, Luther McCoy, Mariah Adkins, McCoy Time Singers, Monroe Fry, music, Ohio, Oscar Osborne, Salty Dog, Sherman Luther Haley, Sherman McCoy, Spicie McCoy, Time Has Made A Change, Wayne County, WCMI, West Virginia, Winchester Adkins, writing

After the feud, Cain Adkins settled on Laurel Creek in Wayne County and never returned to Harts. Not long afterward, he began suffering from some type of lingering illness.

“Grandpaw, he played a fiddle,” Daisy said. “They had him to play the fiddle on his deathbed. Somebody came in and they wanted to hear a song and he played it for him. He said, ‘They ain’t no harm in a fiddle. If they’s any harm, it’s when no one plays it.’ I’ve heard Mom tell the last song he played, but I don’t know what it was he played. Mom said it made him feel better.”

Cain died of Brights Disease in 1896.

His widow Mariah lived many more years.

“Grandmaw was a good person — she went to church every Sunday. The last ten years she went blind and stayed with Mom. Mom waited on her.”

She died in 1931.

It took Spicie years to forgive the Brumfields for killing Green. Even after remarrying Goble Fry (her first cousin) in 1893, she was unable to cope with Green’s death and always cried when recounting the tale of his murder. For years, her bitterness kept her from joining the church.

“She felt like he hadn’t done nothing to be killed for ’cause she loved him better than anything,” Daisy said. “Before she was baptized, my brother Sherman had went off to work — him and a bunch of boys — and they was all telling what church their mother belonged to and Sherman said to Mom, ‘Mom, I had to tell them you didn’t belong to the church.’ ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I can’t forgive the Brumfields.’ He said, ‘You can’t forget it, but you got to forgive them or you’ll go to the same place where they did.’ I heard him say that. I was a young woman.”

These were apparently inspiring words, because Spicie was baptized soon afterwards and formed a gospel quartet, “The McCoy Time Singers.” Her son, Sherman McCoy, was a key member.

“Brother Sherman could play any kind of instrument, but banjo is what he played mostly,” Daisy said. “He played all kinds of pretty tunes on the banjo that wasn’t gospel. And when he was on WCMI he wanted people to write in and tell him to play the gospel music, but he had to play the one that got the most requests and he didn’t get very much requests for the gospel. But Mom and Sherman sung them gospel songs on there. They had a program on WCMI one time.”

Daisy said the only known recordings of the McCoy Time Singers had been destroyed years ago.

“They made records of their quartet singing and they peeled up. Got damp. Monroe, my brother, got some and even wrapped them in cloth and they still peeled.”

I wanted to know more about Sherman McCoy, so I got out my banjo and played a little bit for Daisy. She said he played a lot with his uncle, Winchester Adkins (one of the best fiddlers in Wayne County), and a guitar player named Oscar Osborne.

“Brother Sherman was one of the best banjo players I ever heard,” Daisy said. “I’ve heard them on television but I’ve never heard anything to beat Brother Sherman. He played a guitar and taught music lessons. He played all kinds of jigs. Did you ever play ‘The Indian Girl’? He didn’t like to play that one very much because he had to tune it different but that was the prettiest tune I ever heard on the banjo. It sounded like he had more than ten fingers.”

I asked Daisy about Sherman playing with Ed Haley and she said, “He played music with Ed Haley and they played in Catlettsburg.”

That’s all she knew about it but I wondered just how well they actually knew each other. Was it possible that Ed named his oldest child Sherman Luther Haley after Sherman McCoy? I could just picture them loafing together as young bachelors.

Daisy said Green McCoy’s other son, Green Jr., was a singing instructor. She remembered the first time he came into contact with a guitar.

“Uncle Cain, he played a guitar,” she said. “He come down one time and wanted Green to see his guitar. Green only seen that guitar one time and worked a week and got him a guitar and tuned it up and was playing on it. He was gifted.”

What happened to him?

Faye said, “Uncle Green, he hadn’t been dead but I’d say about eight or ten years. He played a guitar good.”

Daisy said Green’s son Luther plays the guitar on the radio in the Columbus-Chillicothe area.

“Uncle Green said he was absolutely the best he ever heard,” she said.

She didn’t know much about Luther or have any recordings of him but had a videocassette tape of Green Jr. picking the guitar and singing in 1975. (I couldn’t help but note that Green Jr. and Ed Haley both had sons named Luther.)

Spicie’s children by Goble Fry also were talented musicians, hinting at a musical strain in her genetics as well.

“Uncle Monroe was a Fry — that was Mom’s brother — and Harkins — they both played music,” Faye said. “But now, Uncle Monroe could play, I guess, about any type of instrument. I remember him playing ‘Salty Dog’ one time.”

Daisy really bragged on her brother Harkins Fry, a music teacher and songwriter. He wrote one gospel song called “Time Has Made A Change”, which Daisy and Faye sang for us:

Time has made a change in the old homeplace.

Many of my friends have gone away,

Some never more in this life I shall see.

Time has made a change in me.

Time has made a change in the old homeplace.

Time has made a change in each smiling face,

And I know my friends can plainly see

Time has made a change in me.

In my childhood days I was well and strong.

I could climb the hillside all day long,

But I’m not today what I used to be.

Time has made a change in me.

When I reach my home in that land so fair.

Meet my friends awaiting me over there.

Free from toil and pain I shall ever be.

Time has made a change in me.

Blackburn Lucas

06 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner

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Angeline Lucas, Blackburn Lucas, Boney Lucas, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Lincoln County, photos, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

Blackburn Lucas, son of Mont "Boney" and Angeline (Adkins) Lucas, resident of Wayne County, WV

Blackburn Lucas, son of Mont “Boney” and Angeline (Adkins) Lucas, resident of Wayne County, WV

In Search of Ed Haley 302

04 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner

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Angeline Lucas, Bill Frazier, Brandon Kirk, Cain Adkins, Cain Adkins Jr., Daisy Ross, Faye Smith, feud, Harts Creek, history, John Hartford, Laurel Creek, Lee Adams, Lena Adkins, Lincoln County, Liza Adkins, Mariah Adkins, Mittie Adkins, Napier Ridge, Ranger, Sherman McCoy, Spicie McCoy, Stiltner, Wayne County, West Virginia, Winchester Adkins, writing

I asked Daisy again about her mother’s escape from Harts Creek.

“Grandpaw and the oldest boy had to come on out and come down into Wayne County to save their lives,” she said.

This seeming abandonment of his family in such a dark time appeared to be a blemish on Cain’s otherwise “spotless record.” I thought about that and said, “Seems to me like the safest way to get everybody out was to get the menfolk out first. And also, too, the menfolk could have got out of there quicker without the womenfolk.”

Faye said, “Well, I remember Grandmaw saying the Brumfields said they’d kill everything from the housecat up. I guess that’s why Grandpaw left, but I still wonder why he left the womenfolk. I can’t help it if it is my great-grandpaw.”

Not long after Cain left Harts, Daisy’s grandmother, Mariah Adkins, killed twelve sheep and some hogs and stored the meat in barrels, then loaded the barrels and all of the other family possessions onto a rented push-boat.

“They couldn’t get nobody to row the boat,” Daisy said. “Grandmaw tried to hire a colored man and he said he would, but he said, ‘I know they’d kill me.’ So they had to do it all theirselves. And Mom and Sissy done the rowing.”

“It was a pretty big size boat cause they had all the stuff they had in their house and their barrels of meat all in there,” Daisy said. “But they couldn’t get nobody to row the boat. Grandmaw tried to hire a colored man and he said he would but he said, ‘I know they’d kill me.’ So they had to do it all theirselves. And Mom and Sissy done the rowing.”

Those on the boat were 46-year-old Mariah Adkins, 23-year-old Spicie McCoy, 18-year-old Mittie Adkins, 13-year-old Lena Adkins, 13-year-old Liza Adkins, nine-year-old Cain Adkins, Jr., and one-year-old Sherman McCoy. Daisy wasn’t sure if Aunt Angeline (aged 28) was on the boat with her six kids, including a newborn.

“I don’t know whether she was already down here or not,” she said. “She didn’t come on the boat with them, I don’t think. She come down and married Lee Adams and lived out on the Napier Ridge.”

Daisy gave a chilling account of the ride down-river.

“Mom was about four months along with my brother Green and she had that little baby. Sherman was about a year and a half old — and it was raining and cold. 8th day of January. They come down through there and the peach trees was in full bloom, she said. Had been kind of a warm spell and the peach trees bloomed out that year. Mom said she was cold; she was numb.”

As they crept out of Harts, little Sherman McCoy pulled a long hair pin from his mother’s hair and stuck it repeatedly in her breast. She was afraid to take it from him because he might cry and alert the Brumfields of their exodus.

“He’d take that straight pin and poke it in her breast and pull it out,” Daisy said. “She knowed she was gonna be drowned every minute, so she wouldn’t scold him for it. She said, ‘It didn’t hurt and he had fun at it.’ He was just a little fella.”

It was the beginning of a rough ride: Mariah almost tipped the boat twice before allowing her daughter Mittie to pilot it.

The Adkinses spent the night at Ranger where they stored their goods at a local home. The next day, they got off the boat at Branchland and crossed over a mountain to Laurel Creek in Wayne County.

“Then they got Bill Frazier from Stiltner to go back up there to Ranger in a wagon — he was a young man then — and haul whatever they had stored down there,” Daisy said. “By the time he got there, the hams and meat didn’t have much meat on them.”

This story about the Adkins family’s exodus constituted one of those unforgettable tales in our search. Hearing about the Brumfield threat to kill “everything from the housecat up” caused Brandon to feel horrible that his ancestors would’ve perhaps harmed innocent women and children. Things had apparently come to that in Harts. Women shot from ambush. Young widows. Orphans. The entire community seemed to be coming undone. Of course, the determination of the women and children to survive their horrible ordeal was both inspiring and awesome, especially considering they weren’t the strong, raw-boned mountaineer women which one imagines them to have been. (Spicie McCoy only weighed about 91 pounds.)

Spicie Adkins McCoy

03 Saturday May 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner, Women's History

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Appalachia, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, history, life, Lincoln County, photos, Spicie McCoy, U.S. South, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, widow of Green McCoy, resident of Wayne County, WV

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, widow of Green McCoy, resident of Wayne County, WV

Julia May Lucas, Angeline Lucas, and Eliza McComas

29 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner, Women's History

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Angeline Lucas, Appalachia, Bessie Watts, Eliza McComas, feud, genealogy, history, Julia May Lucas, Napier Ridge, U.S. South, Wayne County, West Virginia

Angeline (Adkins) Lucas, resident of West Fork of Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Julia May Lucas, Angeline Adkins Lucas (center), and Eliza Adams McComas, residents of Napier Ridge, Wayne County, WV. Courtesy of the Bessie Lucas Watts family

Feud Poll 1

If you had lived in the Harts Creek community during the 1880s, to which faction of feudists might you have given your loyalty?

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Feud Poll 2

Do you think Milt Haley and Green McCoy committed the ambush on Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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Feud Poll 3

Who do you think organized the ambush of Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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Ed Haley Poll 1

What do you think caused Ed Haley to lose his sight when he was three years old?

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Appalachia Ashland Big Creek Big Ugly Creek Blood in West Virginia Brandon Kirk Cabell County cemeteries Chapmanville Charleston civil war coal Confederate Army crime culture Ed Haley Ella Haley Ferrellsburg feud fiddler fiddling genealogy Green McCoy Guyandotte River Harts Harts Creek Hatfield-McCoy Feud history Huntington John Hartford Kentucky Lawrence Haley life Lincoln County Lincoln County Feud Logan Logan Banner Logan County Milt Haley Mingo County music Ohio photos timbering U.S. South Virginia Wayne County West Virginia Whirlwind writing

Blogs I Follow

  • OtterTales
  • Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC
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OtterTales

Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain

Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC

This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.

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Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond

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A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century

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